{"id":890628,"date":"2026-10-22T10:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890628\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T10:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:04:09","slug":"friedman-dodgers-offseason-business-as-usual","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/890628\/","title":{"rendered":"Friedman: Dodgers Offseason “Business As Usual”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers\u2019 bid for a three-peat ended in decisive fashion, as they were swept by the Brewers one year after handing Milwaukee that same fate in the NLCS. As they turn their attention to 2027, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman tells reporters (including Katie Woo of The Athletic<\/a>) that this offseason will be \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d from a financial perspective \u2014 at least pending the possibility for an overhaul to the sport\u2019s economic structure in the next collective bargaining agreement.<\/p>\n

No team has come close to the Dodgers\u2019 spending in recent years. There\u2019d been no real concern that they might slow down until reports emerged this summer that investments and loans made by insurance businesses owned by chairman Mark Walter were the subject of federal inquiries. Walter has sold off his interests in a few other sports franchises, most notably the Lakers. Dodgers CEO Stan Kasten said in no uncertain terms in August that Walter had no plans<\/a> to sell the baseball franchise. Kasten also downplayed the idea that the non-baseball businesses could lead to a reduction in the team\u2019s payroll, saying then that \u201cthe Dodgers stand on their own pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friedman\u2019s comments strike the same chord. \u201cWe talked to Mark after we lost, and he was obviously really disappointed,\u201d he told reporters on Wednesday. \u201cBut so much of his focus was on, OK, what can we do? What are our plans? What are our thoughts for the offseason? And our brains weren\u2019t quite there yet, but so much of his focus was how do we put ourselves in the best position to win in \u201927?\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest question is whether to make a serious run at retaining\u00a0Tarik Skubal<\/a>. He\u2019s the clear #1 free agent and could command a contract that more than triples the next-biggest deal that anyone signs this winter. Skubal and agent Scott Boras figure to take aim at topping the records for both overall guarantee by a pitcher ($325MM) and average annual value ($43.333MM) \u2014 likely by significant margins. There\u2019s a decent chance Skubal becomes the game\u2019s first $400MM+ pitcher.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers don\u2019t\u00a0need Skubal necessarily.\u00a0Yoshinobu Yamamoto<\/a>,\u00a0Blake Snell<\/a>,\u00a0Tyler Glasnow<\/a>, Roki Sasaki<\/a>, Shohei Ohtani<\/a>\u00a0and some combination of Justin Wrobleski<\/a>,\u00a0Emmet Sheehan<\/a> and\u00a0Gavin Stone<\/a> would already make for one of the game\u2019s best rotations. That didn\u2019t stop L.A. from winning the bidding on the trade front this summer, of course. Their combination of resources and roster strength means they can afford to pursue impact talent with an eye on October. That\u2019s also why they\u2019re happy to embrace regular season injury\/workload questions with Snell and Glasnow, as their main focus is on building the most talented possible pitching staff for the postseason.<\/p>\n

Skubal is probably the only true elite talent in an otherwise subpar class. There\u2019s a high volume of mid-level starting pitchers, but the Dodgers\u2019 relative lack of concern with the regular season means they\u2019ve devalued lower upside innings eaters. They\u2019re also locked in for the most part on the position player side, so they don\u2019t need to be especially aggressive in a hitting class loaded with question marks.<\/p>\n

Shohei Ohtani<\/a>,\u00a0Mookie Betts<\/a>,\u00a0Freddie Freeman<\/a>, Kyle Tucker<\/a>,\u00a0Will Smith<\/a>,\u00a0Max Muncy<\/a> and Andy Pages<\/a> essentially have seven lineup spots secured. The Dodgers probably should look to move on from\u00a0Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> in the final season of his three-year deal, though they\u2019d plug top prospect Josue De Paula<\/a> into left field if that happens. A combination of Tommy Edman<\/a>,\u00a0Alex Freeland<\/a> and\u00a0Hyeseong Kim<\/a> seems fine at second base, though that\u2019s the one position that\u2019d be a little easier to upgrade if they wanted to take a swing on another big bat (e.g.\u00a0Brandon Lowe<\/a>).<\/p>\n

If the Dodgers let Skubal walk, it could be a relatively quiet offseason mostly because they don\u2019t have a ton of pressing needs. The main exception would be in the bullpen with impending free agencies of\u00a0Alex Vesia<\/a> and\u00a0Evan Phillips<\/a> \u2014 both of whom it stands to reason they\u2019d like to bring back on two- or three-year deals.<\/p>\n

As shown on MLBTR\u2019s Payroll Tracker<\/a> (via contributor Ethan Hullihen), the Dodgers ended this season with a competitive balance tax estimate around $430.7MM. That\u2019s estimated around $388MM for next year, including the projected salaries for a relatively light arbitration class. No team would need to reduce spending more than L.A. if MLB successfully gets the Players Association to budge on a salary cap. That would surely involve a multi-year grace period for the biggest spenders to get payrolls down to acceptable levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers\u2019 bid for a three-peat ended in decisive fashion, as they were swept by the Brewers one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":890629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-890628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/890629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}